South Percha Creek, 2019 - Gila National Forest

Highway 70 was going be blocked on that last Sunday of October, so we headed out to Black Range in the Gila instead of the Lincoln. I had two ideas for hikes in mind. If the fall color was still going, rambling down to South Percha Creek would be the ticket. If it wasn't then I thought we could try out the newly rehabilitated Sawyer's Peak trail up on the crest of the mountains.
 We knew pretty quickly once NM152 pass from the rim of Southwest Canyon over onto the rim of South Percha where we'd be going. The steep hillsides, especially in places where the pines and firs had been eliminated by the Silver Fire (2013), were ablaze in oranges, golds, pinks and reds. It looked like a New England scene if you could forgive the fact that oaks and maples that were providing the color were almost entirely  bush and shrub sized, most no more high than I am tall.


 We pulled off a  little over 4 miles from Kingston where there is old road that heads down to the confluence of Drummond and South Percha Creeks and the long abandoned Gray Eagle Mine.
 It was windy enough upon exiting the truck to give pause about the entire operation, but we continued and began our walk. At the start were the bare black branches of scrub oaks and junipers where  the fire had a run up the hillside, but quickly the route was edged by mountain mahogany and silktassel. It seems the road sees little use of any kind now, and in many sections our dogs were having to bound through thick, matted bunch grass that completely concealed the gravel tread.
 I had been down in there two times before the fire. Once in the spring when we followed the creek down stream for couple of miles. The other time was in the fall when we were delighted by the many maple trees in full color. I'm happy say that most of the mature bigtooth maples at the confluence  were still there, and their colors were spectacular again.

 The upstream portion of South Percha was flowing nicely ( a collateral benefit perhaps from the fire) even though it's been pretty dry over the first month of Autumn, so we decided to follow the little creek to places we hadn't been before. It was kind of rough going through the  thick stream side growth and wooden debris, especially with the dogs on leashes and no trail to speak of, but the maples on the hillsides above us kept us in good spirits in spite of the difficulty.

 Much of the creek through this section runs over limestone bedrock, and eventually we came to flowing 20 foot waterfall which had second 12 footer a short ways above it. The sounds were lovely, but unfortunately mineral muck and algae obscured the small flow from view.

 

We had our picnic on little flat bank above the creek in the shade of a couple of maples, just upstream from the darkest section of the canyon with huge alders providing for shady bend.
After lunch I explored a bit above the waterfalls using a wildlife trail to get there. It was a pretty area with a flowing spring, more bedrock pools and more maples. Fairly soon however the way forward was becoming a true scrambling challenge with many large trees having fallen across the creek.

I turned around and we headed back down, stopping to look at the tailings of the mines for samples of azurite and and malachite that could be found. we also peeked at the entrance to an old mine tunnel where the mineralized vein they were following was easily visible.



Back at the bottom we walked up the road in Drummond Canyon until reaching the first washout. We could see up ahead that it soon would enter a heavily burned area that will be a long time in recovering.

We then headed downstream in South Percha a bit, but a veritable forest of goldenrod, the complete loss of the old trail, and the fire damaged scenery had us heading up the hill to our vehicle sooner rather than later.